Term 4

Week 9 - The End of the Year

I can't quite believe that we have reached the end of our year together!  It has been a year full of fun and learning and I am so proud of the achievements of everyone in the class.

It has been great getting to know the children, and you their families, from Mums and Dads to Grandparents and siblings.  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holidays. 

To remind you of all the fun we have had this year, I have created this little video.  The children watched it today, so sit back and watch a year unfold before your eyes in a little over 3 minutes.

Room 22

Week 3 - Visit by Stu Duval

We had a fantastic time listening to and watching Stu Duval this morning.  He is a fantastic storyteller, and entertained us all with his drawings, funny voices and sound effects as he wove his tale.

Did  you ask what your child had learnt at school today and get the answer an s, 2 dots, a prickle and a line?  Well that was how Stu drew his Dad.

Then he chose Emerson to pick a letter - an 'e' of course - and drew a parrot starting with the shape of an e.

He then drew the Little Green Book Monster in chalk saying he would give the picture to one of the classes, before he started to weave his tale of the Monster.

Everyone is the hall, students and teachers alike, were enthralled by the story, laughing and holding our breath.

Thanks Stu!

Week 2 - Buddy Class

On Friday afternoon we were joined in Room 22 by our buddy class.  They came to help us draw Stu Duval cartoons and to hear the second chapter of his book 'Rat Island'.

Soon the students were sitting with their buddies with drawings to copy and pencil and paper at the ready.

I was really impressed by how well the students were able to follow Stu's instructions and copy his drawings.  We also watched some "How to Draw" videos which he has posted on his website and attempted some of those.

We worked together with our buddies really well and all the children were engaged in the task.  If you would like to visit Stu's website the address is: www.studuval.co.nz

Week 2 - Gingerbread Man Maths

On Thursday and Friday we completed some maths activities based around the story of "The Gingerbread Man".  On Thursday we cut out gingerbread man shapes and then went around the classroom trying to find 5 items that were smaller, 5 items that were bigger and 5 items that were the same size as the cut out.

Finding items that were the same size proved to be the trickiest, but we had great fun trying to find something different than our friends.  This was a great lesson in comparing sizes.

On Friday we had a problem solving challenge to build a bridge using only blocks, paper and sellotape that would hold Ellie out toy elephant.  The bridge had to stretch across on of the river drawings that were on each table.  Some rivers were wide and some were narrow.  The challenge was to try and build a bridge that would stretch across the widest rivers and still be strong enough to hold the toy.

By cleverly folding, and some ingenious use of the sellotape, some bridges were a great success.

 

Week 2  - Kiwi Sport Tennis Lessons

We are having such a fun filled sporting week!  Today we had the first of four sessions learning how to play tennis with the coaches from Kiwi Sport.

We started by warming up our muscles playing some really fun games that not only tested our speed and agility but also our ability to listen!

Next we were told that we were going to be learning to volley.  We practiced the moves without a racquet and then the class was split into 4 teams.

Each team member took it in turns to try and hit 2 balls that were thrown to them, before passing the racquet to the next team member and going to gather the balls they hit or missed!  Soon there were balls flying all over the net and children racing to gather them up.

It wasn't long before the balls were being hit really well and we're looking forward to our next session next week.

Week 2 -  Inflatable fun

On Tuesday we welcomed new student Chloe to Room 22 who has just arrived in New Zealand with her family from South Africa.

She was straight into the thick of things as we began our week with a session of Inflatable Football.  We paired up with Room 23 and headed out to the field.  Our class started by playing some games to help us with our ball control skills.  We were learning how to run with the ball without the ball moving too far away from us.  Once we'd had a few practice turns we played a game of Stuck in the Mud where the taggers had to tag a player by kicking their ball, and you got untagged when another player kicked their ball through your legs.  We all had lots of fun trying to avoid the taggers and free our friends.

Then we swapped over and had a couple of mini games in the inflatable field.  The class was split into 4 teams and we got to watch and play.  The red team were the stand out team winning their game 5-0!

If your child would like to play Inflatable Football, sessions are being held at Torbay on Thursday afternoons after school for 6 weeks.  All children received a note about this to take home stating dates, times and cost.


Week 1 - Buddy Class Fun

On Friday afternoon we got together with our buddy class who are doing an Inquiry into NZ toys and games past and present.  They decided to teach us some fun games including Stuck in the Mud and Duck, Duck, Goose.  They also guided us around the senior playground again as we had such fun last time we did this together.  When they are a bit further on with their inquiry they are going to teach us how to play some more traditional games such as "elastics".

In Week 3 the Year 1-4's have a visit from Stu Duval - a famous author and illustrator.  So we decided that we would share one of Stu's stories with our buddy class.  After we had played games outside we all came back to Room 22 where I read the first chapter of "Rat Island".  It was unanimously decided that we wanted to hear more next time we get together!

Stu has written several books on how to draw cartoon style drawings of, amongs other things, Under the Sea Creatures and Dinosaurs.  So our next session will be working with our buddies to follow Stu's instructions and complete some great drawings, as well as have them help us think of some good questions to ask Stu.

It is great to see how the Year 2 students thrive under the attention of the Year 5 & 6's, and the enjoyment and sense of responsibility shown by the older children towards the younger ones.


Week 1  - Fabulous Creations

On Friday Thomas, Kobe and Remy used our hundreds, tens and ones blocks to create an amazing building.  Awesome work!

Week 1 - Maths Measurement

On Friday we completed two activities in our maths time.  All the students filled cups with compost and planted a sunflower seed for our Sunflower growing competition.  We will wait until our seeds begin to grow and then will plant them outside to give them a chance to get taller and taller!

 

 The second activity was a measurement and comparing activity.  Each student had a worksheet which had different sized pictures of sunflowers on.  They had to use cubes to measure the height of each sunflower.  Then when they had written that down they had to cut out the sunflowers and put them in height order in their maths books.

We are looking forward to see whose sunflower grows the tallest.

Week 1 - Measurement

This term we are looking at measuring length as one of our maths strand focus.  On Thursday we made a list of  words we knew about measuring and came up with lots including long, short, wide, thin, thick, high, kilometres and metres.

We talked about standard and non-standard units of measurement and how we can use lots of things to measure including our hands.

Then the students split into their maths groups and rotated around 4 activities.

In the first activity I measured the students against our new sunflower height chart.  As part of our measurement activities we are going to grow our own sunflowers and measure how tall they get by the end of term.  We discovered that Brooklyn is the shortest student in class and Claudio and Jaime are the tallest.

 The second activity was using cubes to build different sized buildings to make a town.  Could they make wide, short, tall and narrow buildings?

The third activity was drawing around their foot and cutting out and comparing their footprint to others in their group.  Who had the shortest / longest feet?  Whose feet were widest and whose were narrow?

The final activity was using playdoh to roll out a "worm".  On the table was a picture of a worm and they had to try and make a fatter, thinner, longer and shorter worm.

We had great fun taking part in all the different activities and had great discussions using our measurement language.

Week 1 - Marvelous Musicians!

This term the Year 2 students are doing a rotation where they will take part in music, ICT, science and Te Reo activities in each of the four classes.  Each class will do two sessions in every class, and on Wednesday Room 22 stayed with me to have the first of their music sessions.

First we brainstormed what we knew about percussion instruments.  Then we watched a short video that explained a little bit about rhythm, how to play percussion instruments and how there are tuned and untuned percussion instruments.

Next we played a couple of different types of percussion instruments including a tamba and a maraca.

Then we looked at how notes are written and discussed how there are low and high notes and how they have letters as names.

After, each student was given either a set of resonator bells - which are like miniature glockenspiels - or a glockenspiel to play.  They learnt how to hold the "beater" to get the best sound and then we began playing different notes to hear how they sounded.

Then we learnt how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by breaking the song into parts and playing the notes a section at a time.

Finally, after practicing the whole tune through a couple of times, we were ready to be recorded.

So, without further ado, Room 22 proudly presents some musical entertainment for your pleasure!